Common Ground - Roy AB Tolentino

"A Javanese of the later eighteenth century... might find in Islam not only the five pillars and the law, which were the proper container for mystical thought, but also support for anti-kafir sentiments and actions. But a Javanese Muslim need not doubt that Suwan Lawu, Goddess of the Southern Ocean, and all manner of indigenous spirit forces were as real as God’s final message to humankind through the Qur’an." (Ricklefs 2006:187)

This description ends M.C. Ricklefs’ account of the Islamic synthesis in the 18th to 19th centuries, but it might also be used to describe some Muslims in Java today. As Ricklefs’ research shows, there were many different styles of adaptation and incorporation as the Javanese tried to integrate Islam with their indigenous beliefs. The patterns of Power present in Javanese culture, the cosmology and belief in a spiritual realm, found a place within the sense of identity with the worldwide Muslim community. This is something Mark Woodward also documents in his work, Islam in Java. With the adoption of Islam in the Javanese court, the notion of Power which comes from indigenous Javanese belief is given an Islamic interpretation. As a center of Power, the king does not only wield political and social Power, but religious Power as well, “replacing the wali (saint) as the preeminent religious authority.” (Woodward 1989:107) The king is described as “the nail of the universe,” and his subjects are united to him in the flow of Power which comes from Allah. “The sultan... is, in theory, the perfect man, guided directly by the will of Allah and capable of ensuring the prosperity, power, and spirituality of all of his subjects.” (Woodward 1989:249)

Flowing from our discussions in the past weeks regarding the categories of religion, one can observe that there is no such thing as a “pure” religion; in every place where a religion spreads, it is appropriated in the fashion fitting to the local culture and habitus. In Java, which had a plurality of indigenous cultures to begin with, the acceptance of Islam came with the corresponding appropriation into Javanese culture. Of course, as Ricklefs and Woodward point out, there was no plan; this synthesis was not premeditated. Owing to historical contingencies, the appropriation of Islam came about on a number of levels, not only religious. The same thing has happened to Islam in other parts of the world; the same thing happens with any religion that is able to establish a foothold.

The question that arises in the contemporary period, however, is whether religions are allowed to renew themselves. The tension between N.U. and Muhammadiyah might well be described as the disparity between “sticking with the way things are, and have always been” and “the possibility of renewal and rediscovery;” these two positions might equally be ascribed to both groups. As Julia Day Howell observes, there is present “a fervent concern on the part of Muslims of both Traditionalist and Modernist backgrounds to infuse ‘outward’ expressions of faith (so strongly stressed in scripturalism) with an ‘inner’ meaning and experiential richness by drawing on Islam’s mystical tradition.” (Howell 2001:722) Given the rich tradition of Islam in Indonesia, there is enough common ground for discourse between the Traditionalists and the Modernists; the common ground is fertile ground, as well.

Howell, Julia Day. “Sufism and the Indonesian Islamic Revival,” The Journal of Asian Studies. Vol. 60, No. 3, August 2001.
Ricklefs, Merle C. Mystic Synthesis in Java. Norwalk: Eastbridge Books, 2006.
Woodward, Mark R. Islam in Java: Normative Piety and Mysticism in the Sultanate of Yogyakarta. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989.